ART OF SPORT LA BOWL HOSTED BY GRONK: WASHINGTON VS BOISE STATE

December 13, 2025

Jedd Fisch

Demond Williams

Xe'Ree Alexander

SoFi Stadium

Washington Huskies

Press Conference

Washington - 38, Boise State - 10

JEDD FISCH: I want to thank Bucked Up LA Bowl sponsored by Bucked Up and obviously hosted by Gronk. I thought that was awesome. Fantastic game. We had a blast being here those last three days.

Really proud of our team. They treated the game as we asked them to, which was a championship game, championship opportunity. As we're sitting here with nine wins, really proud of our players. Tonight was a great football game.

I thought Demond and Xe'ree, who are here, certainly represent our program in an elite way but also represented our program tonight, competing every play, every play that they were in. It was awesome to see.

Just really proud of our team. Our team had a great week of preparation and really have had a really good November and December. Proud of those guys. Excited about what the future entails.

Q. Coach, with the way the offense was going and the way the defense was playing, just for the future of this team, obviously the portal works both ways, teams can come and get your players. But just as far as how they performed tonight, how do you feel the core of this team will be heading into next season?

JEDD FISCH: I thought, if you look at Raiden Vines probably had his first touchdown, he's a freshman. Dezmen Roebuck back had his seventh touchdown of the season. He's a freshman. Demond played elite. He's a sophomore. We play with probably the most freshmen in all of college football. Plays that were being made by guys were all young players. Players for the most part that all have eligibility left.

Our goal obviously is to bring back as many players as we possibly can. I think our guys know that we've got a great season coming ahead of us. We've got a great team. They're led by an elite player. When you have an elite quarterback, you've got a great opportunity to win a lot of games.

Q. Demond, obviously ending on a high note with this win tonight, but what did you learn the most about yourself under center this season, and how does that help you going into the off-season with the momentum and getting ready obviously? There's really no seasons off. How do you take this and get ready for next year?

DEMOND WILLIAMS JR.: I'd say just go out as a leader throughout the season, I think all the guys or coaches, about halfway through the season, I felt like there was a flip switched in my head to turn the team into mine and continue to use my voice more. Also just being a better leader on the sidelines and finding ways to motivate guys in between drives and continue to play at a high level.

Q. Demond, first of all, congratulations on the win. Coach called you elite. I called you efficient. You were very efficient tonight. First quarter you were 4 for 5. Second quarter you ended up 12 for 17 with three touchdowns at the half. What happened in the second quarter for you? Also, talk about your offensive coordinator and the game that he drew up. It just seemed like in the second quarter things just started clicking for you.

DEMOND WILLIAMS JR.: For sure, we knew what they were going to play on defense. It was just a matter of execution. First quarter, we just weren't executing enough. Second quarter, it was a mentality thing in the huddle. That's where that leadership thing comes in to remind everybody that it's our game and we understand that we have to execute every play.

In order to do that, you have to continue to try to lean on each other and not waver.

Q. Demond, I want to go back to the Denzel Boston touchdown, when you saw him that open, was that the most open you've ever seen Denzel?

DEMOND WILLIAMS JR.: For sure, for sure, yeah.

Q. How did it all unfold? Once you saw no safety help, did you already smell blood in the water?

DEMOND WILLIAMS JR.: Yeah, I had my back turned obviously because I was under center running a play action. Once I turned around, I saw there was no safeties and my guy running free. I tried to make sure I made it as catchable as possible so he can go score.

Q. Question for the defensive MVP, what word describes this performance? I believe five takeaways is an LA Bowl record?

XE'REE ALEXANDER: It was amazing. Yeah, defense dominated. We did our job. Man it's just amazing to win.

Q. X, considering where you started the season, second team, not getting a ton of snaps, to now defensive MVP and a great end to the season, how has this year kind of played out for you, and what is it like to end it this way?

XE'REE ALEXANDER: It was amazing to end it this way, but it's truly just coming to work every day. My thought process never changed. I would just come to work every day, trying to beat the guy in front of me but also encourage my teammates and lead them.

Q. Coach, you sent us scrambling. We were looking at who was No. 10 returning kicks today. Can you give us any insight on that? Xe'ree, can you comment on that as well?

JEDD FISCH: We talked about who was really going to help us set up a return for Adam and who was going to be an elite blocker out there as an off returner. Xe'ree was the guy we chose for that position, and they kicked it to him. Who would have known we'd be looking at a guy with an elite return game? He was already trying to negotiate being the off returner for next season as we were walking across the field.

We're really proud of the way he handled it. Obviously it's not something he does often. He had a great interception, carried the ball, and he had two carries today, which was pretty cool.

XE'REE ALEXANDER: I just want to say I proved all my teammates wrong.

(Laughter).

No, it was amazing. I knew the kicker. I played with him last year at UCF. Before the game, I was like I'm off return. You'd better kick it to me this game. I promise you, I'm going to do something with it. No, it was an amazing feeling.

Q. Xe'ree, you had five linebackers that started this year. I think one of them is left. Every time you added a new one like Manu became eligible and Zaydrius Russ got recovered. It seemed your game stepped up each time a new guy came. Is the competition going to be unreal for this in the spring with four returning starters trying to get two jobs?

XE'REE ALEXANDER: Yeah, competition is going to be amazing, but we work together as a team. Every day we come together as a group and talk about what we need to work on. It's just amazing teamwork.

This spring is going to be amazing competition. It's going to be great.

Q. After the Oregon game, how important was it for the team to finish the season on a win, a high note?

JEDD FISCH: We thought for sure the two games prior to Oregon, we were playing at a really high level. Oregon game, five-point game with eight minutes left in the game. We thought we had our chances in that game to get the win. We felt like it was really important for us to come back and bounce back after a tough loss and see how good we can play together. I thought our guys -- offense, defense, special teams -- really everybody clicked, and it was a true complementary game.

I told the guys in the locker room rarely do you get five touchdowns and five interceptions in the same game. That was pretty cool to see. I think that certainly after that game we all came together and wanted to play really well the final game.

Q. Coach, when coaches are asked about their future, they're put in a very tough position, I understand that. Your name has been in the news again. I know you don't like these questions. I don't necessarily like asking them. When you came out, you commented that you're focused very much on the future of this team. I just wonder if fans should read anything into it?

JEDD FISCH: Yeah, I'm fully focused on our team. Our team worked really hard this whole week, and we gave it everything we had this week, and we played at a very high level because of that. That's all I would say on that.

Q. Again, with the five interceptions on defense, you obviously have two NFL corners in Tacario and Ephesians, but the fact that Brian has two picks, the young guys stepped up, what is that testament to the secondary and you guys kind of arguably saying you could call yourselves DBU, and mostly how do you hold onto those coaches? Obviously the carousel has been crazy.

JEDD FISCH: The coaching carousel is always crazy. I would say this, we make a big point of emphasis in our locker room about the players. I thought the coolest thing, up on stage was they asked Demond what was his favorite part of the game, and he said when Leroy got his second interception, and the sideline reacted to it. That's how our program is built.

It was awesome to see Leroy step up. I think everyone was excited about that. Also, we're planning for the future. We've got some really good players. Dylan Robinson stepped up. He started Ohio State, Oregon, and bowl game. Those are three pretty good starts for what's going to be a fantastic career. Rahshawn Clark had an interception today.

I think all of our DBs are playing at a high level, and we're going to do everything we can -- Coach Mays, Coach Richardson, Coach Walters -- these are all great football coaches, and we understand that.

Q. Jedd, I know you said the team is not going to reconvene for the next year until January 3rd or 4th, but what does the next week or so look like for you and the coaching staff when you get back to Seattle and conversations about next year and keeping the team together and all those sort of things?

JEDD FISCH: Yeah, we've had a lot of those conversations here on the bowl site. I gave the coaches off the next couple weeks. I'll go back to Seattle for a few days, and then we'll just figure out exactly what we need to do. We're working very hard at that to make sure that we keep staff together, team together.

We'll meet in Zoom and have a lot of calls regarding trying to get everything ready to go for January 3rd or 4th, whenever we have that first team meeting. It's going to look like probably a lot of work, fund-raising, and talking to donors and trying to put our best team together that we possibly can.

We understand the landscape that we're in. We understand that it's our responsibility to make sure that our players are compensated, coaches are compensated, and we're going to work very hard to try to get that done because the most important thing you can do is have continuity, and not having continuity is not good.

Q. Coach, you were able to get Jonah Coleman a touchdown, you were able to get Quentin Moore a touchdown, but DeShawn Lynch --

JEDD FISCH: He almost got himself a touchdown. That had nothing to do with me.

Q. You talked about the reaction on the sideline. He said he ran out of gas, but what was the reaction on the sideline when all that was going down?

JEDD FISCH: Is that what the Lyncher said? He ran out of gas? I shouldn't have stopped running the team on Tuesdays after practice.

No, it was awesome to see. What a great play. He's had a chance -- is that the third one he could have had? He finally got one, but he had two others he could have caught. He leads the country in the defensive line rooms across the country in pass breakups, pass deflected, which is an amazing stat. It was so cool to put him in position to go score. Then I think Jonah got it in on that drive.

We're proud of those guys. It was fun to see DeShawn do that obviously for his last college game. What a cool thing to have an interception.

Q. Jedd, again you mentioned the future. I know the season just ended, but what do you feel like is a reasonable expectation for this group going into 2026?

JEDD FISCH: I think this group has a lot of promise to win a lot of games. We've talked about that as a team. We've talked about what it looks like and what it can look like and the fact that we went -- at my last spot, we went from one wins to five wins to ten wins. This one we went from six wins to nine wins.

The only way to get better than that is you've got to get three or four more wins every year, and that's the plan. The plan is to be preparing to play next weekend.

Q. One of your radio guys reported that Geirean Hatchett got another year of eligibility and Deven Bryant left. Is that true, both of those?

JEDD FISCH: Geirean Hatchett did get another year of eligibility, which is great. He's excited to come back. He gave me a hug on Senior Night and said, I'm just going to do this twice, but I want to do it one time now, which is interesting. I'm like, okay, great. Then he got the waiver that he's ready to go. He'll be back to play.

I think Deven is making some decisions on what he wants to do, and we're going to wish him the absolute best if he's going to go into the portal. That's going to be his decision to make. We understand. Our goal is to let guys go play. I think that he feels like there's a great opportunity for him to do that elsewhere, and we're going to wish him the absolute best.

Q. This is for the students. How special was this team this year? Just going through everything, all the wins and losses, what is so special about your teammates this season?

XE'REE ALEXANDER: I would say our bond. The team activities that we do as a group, I'd say that's what really brings us together. Just the things that we do outside of football, like off the field. I would say that's like the biggest thing, like that's what brought us together.

DEMOND WILLIAMS JR.: I would say camaraderie and being able to come together after losses we felt like we could have won, and competing in those games against top teams in the country and coming back each week with a chip on our shoulder and trying to go out the next week and play as good as we can.

I feel like it's easy for a team to let one loss affect the next game. For our team, I felt like we had a great mindset this whole year of bouncing back from adversity. That's something I've learned throughout this year, and I feel like the whole team has.